Copyright by L. Van Oeyen, Cleveland, Ohio
PITCHING
IN A PINCH
OR
BASEBALL FROM THE INSIDE
BY
CHRISTY MATHEWSON
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
JOHN N. WHEELER
ILLUSTRATED
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Made in the United States of America
Copyright, 1912
BY
CHRISTOPHER MATHEWSON
This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
INTRODUCTION
Introducing a reader to Christy Mathewson seems like a superfluous pieceof writing and a waste of white paper. Schoolboys of the last ten yearshave been acquainted with the exact figures which have made up Matty’spitching record before they had ever heard of George Washington, becauseGeorge didn’t play in the same League.
Perfectly good rational and normal citizens once deserted a reception tothe Governor of the State because Christy Mathewson was going to pitchagainst the Chicago club. If the committee on arrangements wanted to makethe hour of the reception earlier, all right, but no one could be expectedto miss seeing Matty in the box against Chance and his Cubs for the sakeof greeting the Governor.
Besides being a national hero, Matty is one of the closest students ofbaseball that ever came into the Big League. By players, he has long beenrecognized as the greatest pitcher the game has produced. He has beenpitching in the Big[Pg iv] Leagues for eleven years and winning games rightalong.
His great pitching practically won the world’s championship for the Giantsfrom the Philadelphia Athletics in 1905, and, six years later, he wasresponsible for one of the two victories turned in by New York pitchers ina world’s series again with the Athletics.
At certain periods in his baseball career, he has pitched almost every dayafter the rest of the staff had fallen down. When the Giants were makingtheir determined fight for the championship in 1908, the season that therace was finally decided by a single game with the Cubs, he worked in nineout of the last fifteen games in an effort to save his club from defeat.And he won most of them. That has always been the beauty of hispitching—his ability to win.
Matty was born in Factoryville, Pa., thirty-one years ago, and, aftergoing to Bucknell College, he began to play ball with the Norfolk club ofthe Virginia League, but was soon bought by the New York Giants, where hehas remained ever since and is likely to stay for some time to come, if hecan continue to make himself as welcome as he[Pg v] has been so far. He wasonly nineteen when he